Over the past year, I’ve witnessed growth, collaboration, adaptability and grit throughout our programs, among our participants and from our community.

Farming is a continuous, cyclical process; it is in the nature of farming to adapt, to learn from the previous growing year and to do better. That spirit pervades our organization. We build on the past and grow. We have gradually increased the number of positions offered in our program from 17 to 25 positions in 2023. The quality of programming and the work our participants accomplished in 2023 was the best I’ve ever seen. We also increased the number of Feed 2 Birds shares, which are weekly produce boxes given to community members facing food insecurity, through partnerships with nonprofits, from 45 to 60.

We lost dear HGP friends in 2023 and very recently–a reminder to make every minute count.

Reading Food Inc. 2: Inside the Quest for a Better Future for Food, this line jumped off the page at me: “I had basically exempted myself from seeing myself as a change agent, based on assumptions and beliefs I had been carrying for years.” We want to be a place where you can be a change agent, whether it is as a CSA member, donor, volunteer, or store customer. We want to be a place where you can see yourself making a difference.

I’m proud to share that the Homeless Garden Project was awarded the UCSC Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Award–Community Changemaker. The award recognizes an “organization in the Santa Cruz region that has contributed significantly to driving regional economic prosperity through innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, or support for growing the innovation ecosystem in close collaboration with the university.”

Darrie